Chip ‘n Dale was a staple of my childhood weekend viewing, so when I heard there was a reference to Terminator 2: Judgment Day’s shape shifting mimetic polyalloy villain in the Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers movie, I just had to check it out.
Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers makes the narrative decision to take the audience on an adventure with the chipmunk ‘actors’ who played the Rescue Rangers in the cartoon series.
On paper some of the story decisions could have killed this project for many fans, with Disney even making the drastic decision to ditch the high-pitched chipmunk style voices, though surprisingly… it all works, even when it feels like it shouldn’t.
The movie, which is a mix of live action and animation, is filled to the brim with lots of easter eggs and call-backs, and not just to Disney properties either, but also a whole ton of other non-Disney ips as well. Now, I know what you’re thinking, because once I started to see the continual easter eggs popping up in this film I got terrible flashbacks to Space Jam: A New Legacy, a movie which failed to live up to its potential. However, Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers is an entirely different experience, and perfectly succeeds where the Space Jam sequel failed – by utilizing the location of the world in which the Rangers inhabit; a world which feels like it’s a part of the Who Framed Roger Rabbit universe. Roger Rabbit is even in the movie and so is ‘the dip’, Judge Doom’s (Christopher Lloyd) monstrous paint thinning weapon of choice, which was used with terrifying effect to melt toons.
T-1000 Terminator References in Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers Movie
*The Following details contain spoilers for Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers (2022)
Robert Patrick’s iconic liquid metal T-1000 villain was brought to life by creator James Cameron, Stan Winston Studio and Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) in 1991, as cinema-goers were introduced to groundbreaking special effects which saw this new Terminator do impossible things and take one hell of a beating from both Arnold Schwarzenegger’s T-800 and Linda Hamilton’s Sarah Connor.
Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers pays a great tribute to the deadly liquid metal prototype in scenes involving the character of Ellie (KiKi Layne) and Captain Putty, who is voiced by J.K. Simmons (J.K. also played Detective O’Brien in Terminator Genisys), so who better to be involved with a little Terminator nostalgia?
We first see J.K. Simmons’ Captain Putty appear from under a door as a pool of… well, putty, and then re-form like the T-1000 did on the iconic black and white chequered floor in the corridors of Pescadero State Hospital in T2: Judgment Day. As this is happening we also get some Brad Fiedel-esque percussion to reinforce the fact that we’re seeing a call-back to the Terminator movies.
We also get a gag of Ellie throwing a harpoon at Captain Putty which pins him to the door; he then separates himself from it, which is reminiscent of when the T-1000 pulls out the metal bar lodged in the center of its abdomen in T2.
The tribute then ends perfectly as Ellie freezes Captain Putty with a fire extinguisher just after he forms an anvil with his arm, which felt like a T-1000 thing to do – but of course, all credit goes to Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Judge Doom.
After Captain Putty is frozen in an almost identical manner to the T-1000 at the steel mill in T2’s final act, Ellie flicks him over and he shatters into pieces.
Overall the nods to T2 and the VFX gold of the T-1000 effects managed to raise a smile from me, and if you need a movie to watch this weekend with the family, then I recommend Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers to any Terminator Fans – if only for the never-ending supply of great easter eggs for many beloved properties and the T-1000 scenes alone.
Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers is available now on Disney+
Leave a comment…